Few would give their names, and many claimed to have no opinion at all.<\/p>\n
In April, Independent Kerry TD and minister of state for forestry Michael Healy-Rae resigned from Government, during a confidence motion sparked by its handling of the fuel protests.<\/p>\n
He and his brother Danny, also an Independent Kerry TD, had signed up at the start of this D\u00e1il to support the Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael coalition, but in the heat of the protests, Danny had called for the replacement of the leaders of both parties.<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5108460_18_articleinline_EOHKilgarvan04.jpg\" "\\"")
The Jackie Healy-Rae bar in Kilgarvan. Picture: Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\n
With Michael\u2019s ministry depending on a two-votes-for-the-price-of-one deal, he resigned in dramatic fashion the day of the confidence vote, exiting Leinster House with a clenched fist and a tale of \u201cpeople begging on the side of the road [and] grown men crying\u201d.<\/p>\n
This week, however, he told Radio Kerry it had not been his brother\u2019s place to call for a change in leadership in other parties.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen those words were issued, that is what cost Kerry a ministry for agriculture, that is a fact,\u201d Michael said. \u201cI was pulled overboard by the situation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kilgarvan, a picturesque village about 12 miles east of Kenmare with a population of about 300, is a tidy and pretty place, offering stunning views over the Roughty valley, even on a rainy day when the looming Bird Hill is obscured by mist.<\/p>\n
The village is dominated by one name, with Jackie Healy-Rae\u2019s Bar \u2014 named after the late TD patriarch \u2014 at its heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Danny\u2019s picture \u2014 \u201cVote No 1 Healy-Rae Danny \u2014 I\u2019m on your side\u201d \u2014 is over the canopy, while his branded and battered 06 KY Toyota Fortuner is often parked outside.<\/p>\n
![\"Danny](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5108331_23_articleinline_EOHKilgarvan02.jpg\" "\\"Danny")
Danny Healy-Rae’s car outside the Healy-Rae bar in Kilgarvan. Picture: Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\n
Out toward the Kenmare Road, before the parish church, is Michael\u2019s combined Maxol garage, Mace shop, and post office. Framed election posters adorn the wall of the shop\u2019s dining area, and beside the garage is Healy-Rae Park, a six-bungalow crescent opened in June 2003 by then Kerry mayor Michael.<\/p>\n
The petrol station boundary is marked by a giant portrait of Michael \u2014 \u201cYour No 1 TD Healy-Rae Michael \u2014 hard work, experience, common sense\u201d \u2014 on the gable of a house.<\/p>\n
Across from Jackie Healy-Rae\u2019s, in O\u2019Reilly\u2019s Bar \u2014 \u201cHome to Ireland\u2019s first round pool table\u201d \u2014 the barman and the three regulars professed to have heard nothing about any disagreement in the Healy-Rae camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you sure that happened at all?\u201d asked one man, while the others struggled to keep straight faces.<\/p>\n
Up the hill beside Michael\u2019s shop, Ciar\u00e1n Gribben, a Co Down exile living in Kilgarvan, said he wasn\u2019t surprised at the recent rift.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure Michael and Danny never really got on with each other, that would be an open secret around here, and now they\u2019ve fallen out completely,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people here won\u2019t talk to you; they want to keep their heads down. The two boys are seen as the men to go to if you want something done, and people are afraid to cross them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5108355_22_articleinline_EOHKilgarvan06.jpg\" "\\"")
A poster for Michael Healy-Rae in Kilgarvan. Picture: Eddie O’Hare<\/p>\n
In a field outside the village, a man repairing a fence offered a Biblical observation: \u201cYerrah, show me one man who had a brother and didn\u2019t have at least one falling out with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe media should leave them alone, and don\u2019t be trying to make ordinary people say things to make stories for ye,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On one of the village\u2019s housing estates, a woman in her 40s said she had no interest in politics, but she knew the brothers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey seem all right. They\u2019re very influential around the area, and they employ a good few people,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to get involved, to be honest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In another estate, while the Irish Examiner chatted to a man in his 60s \u2014 \u201cNo way am I saying anything\u201d \u2014 a van bearing the name of Roughty Properties Ltd, Michael\u2019s company, drove very slowly around the estate.<\/p>\n
In a telephone call, Independent Tralee county councillor Sam Locke, a close ally of Michael\u2019s, said he felt currently \u2014 \u201cmy hand on heart\u201d \u2014 that if he were out canvassing in the next general election, he couldn\u2019t see himself asking for second preferences for Danny.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of the manner in which he came out, without discussing it to ourselves or to his brother, I take a very dim view of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However, another Michael ally, Independent Listowel councillor, Liam \u201cSpeedy\u201d Nolan, said it was \u201cway too soon\u201d to talk about the next election, and he was hopeful the brothers might yet be reconciled.<\/p>\n
Michael\u2019s son, Jackie Jr, who had been his father\u2019s ministerial special advisor, is an Independent Kilgarvan councillor, while Danny\u2019s daughter Maura and son Johnny are both Independent councillors based in Kilgarvan.<\/p>\n
Jackie Jr said relations with his cousins are unchanged and remain friendly. He added that he had seen a different side to his father when he was a minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everyone would acknowledge that he was very good in the role, he has proven his ability to govern, his willingness to govern, and his capability to govern, and I hope he will be back in that position again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, we are where we are. The position we find ourselves in is the same one we were in for the last 14 years, and I think we got on pretty well. We have good influence, and we\u2019ll continue to do our best for the people of Kerry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maura said: \u201cFor now, \u2018tis probably best for everyone to say: \u2018No comment\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n
Michael and Danny Healy-Rae both took the Irish Examiner\u2019s calls, but declined to make statements.<\/p>\n
\n Jackie Healy-Rae\n <\/p>\n
The first generation of the Healy-Rae political dynasty in Kerry started with Jackie, a colourful politician whose origins in politics were rooted in Fianna F\u00e1il.<\/p>\n
He became involved in politics in the 1960s, working on several Fianna F\u00e1il election campaigns, not only in Kerry, but across the country.<\/p>\n
In 1973, he was co-opted to Kerry County Council and was re-elected in 1974. He was a councillor until 2003, when new rules were introduced that stopped TDs and senators from also holding council seats.<\/p>\n
He left Fianna F\u00e1il in 1997 as part of a bitter row that saw the party refusing to nominate him to contest the general election for Kerry South. <\/p>\n
Jackie Snr won the seat and was a TD for Kerry between 1997 and 2011. <\/p>\n
Upon his retirement in 2011, his son Michael won his seat. Jackie Healy-Rae died in 2014 aged 83.<\/p>\n
\n Michael Healy-Rae\n <\/p>\n
Michael Healy-Rae was elected at the 2011 general election and has been re-elected in every election since. <\/p>\n
A father of five, aged 59, he was first elected to Kerry County Council in 1999. Often branded \u201cIreland\u2019s wealthiest TD\u201d, he is a postmaster, a petrol station operator, and a plant hire owner.<\/p>\n
He is also one of the only TDs in the D\u00e1il to double up as a reality TV star, with his appearance on Celebrities Go Wild causing controversy after it emerged he received over 3,600 votes from a phone in Leinster House.<\/p>\n
Following the November 2024 election, Michael was appointed minister of state for forestry at the Department of Agriculture. <\/p>\n